Q, Who
by thespecialneedsgroup
Summary: A single Dalek saucer was thrown into the Star Trek universe as a result of the Last Great Time War. Badly damaged and trying to open a gateway back into their own reality, they are discovered by the single biggest threat to life in Star Trek universe.
1. Chapter 1

A directive came from the hive mind:

UNKNOWN ENERGY SIGNATURE DETECTED IN SPACIAL GRID 44147. INTENSITY AND WAVEFORM READINGS INDICATE LIKELY PRESENCE OF MULTIPLE MATTER/ANTIMATTER REACTORS. CUBE 942: INTERCEPT AND INVESTIGATE.

With that, Cube 942 became instantly active; its crew coming to life to coax the massive vessel into operation. Suddenly, the ship shook and seemed to lurch, before disappearing in a flash of brilliant green light. The crew of the mammoth cube worked to precisely tune its transwarp velocity for maximum operating efficiency. This vessel would not waste a single millicochrine en route to its destination. Black, brutal efficiency summed up the species. They would have taken pride in their efficiency, if it were possible for them to feel pride.

Transwarp drive made the journey a matter of minutes, but more than that, it hid the cube from all but the most sophisticated subspace sensors. A cube could enter normal space very near a target and engage it before the target could mount a defense. The object that this cube had been sent to investigate, however, hung very near a protostar; no doubt hoping the star's high-intensity e-band emissions would mask it's presence. It was an unacceptable risk to exit transwarp so near a gravity well, and so the cube would intercept its quarry at space-normal speed-using the delayed approach time to make detailed scans of its target. The cube's crew uploaded their sensor data to the hive mind:

THE OBJECT IS A DISK-SHAED VESSEL 540 METERS IN DIAMETER CONSTRUCTED OF UNKNOWN MATERIAL. HULL SHOWS MODERATE DAMAGE. UNABLE TO DETECT LIFE-SIGNS. POSITRONIC EMISSIONS INDICATE POSSIBLE PRESENCE OF MULTIPLE ARTIFICIAL LIFE-FORMS. RELEVANT TECHNOLOGY CONFIRMED; WE WILL INVESTIGATE.

The cube's weapons and defense systems were brought on-line, and many more of the crew became active. Several scouts were preparing for transport; their duty would be to board the vessel, evaluate its systems, and catalogue the aliens' technology. If the vessel had a crew, it would be brought aboard the cube for processing. And so, opening all communications channels, their investigation began:

WE ARE THE BORG. LOWER YOUR SHIELDS AND SURRENDER YOUR SHIP. YOUR BIOLOGICAL AND TECHNOLOGICAL DISTINCTIVENESS WILL BE ADDED TO OUR OWN. YOU WILL ADAPT TO SERVICE US. RESISTANCE IS FUTILE.

Several seconds passed. Then, the disk-shaped vessel transmitted its one word reply to the Borg cube, "EXTERMINATE!"


	2. A Faithful Agent of the Continuum

Q had been summoned. That was a polite way of saying that he had been forcibly dragged across space and time for a meeting with a member of the Continuum whom Q loathed. He didn't know why he had been summoned, though he suspected that a recent dust-up involving a Tholian cruiser and a particularly humorless Calamarain had not quite met with the Continuum's approval. Sighing, Q contemplated the tedium of yet another disciplinary hearing.

He hadn't even had a chance to sit down in the Continuum's antechamber-currently dilapidated service station on a bad stretch of desert highway-however, when he found himself alone with the Q known as Tribunal in a late 21st Century Earth courtroom.

"I certainly won't accuse you of being original," said Q, not bothering to mask the distain in his voice.

"We have an assignment for you, Q," Tribunal replied, ignoring Q's barb.

"Let me guess," interjected Q, carefully calibrating his tone of voice to telegraph the perfect level of sarcasm, "You want me to wipe the drool off some Klingon chin."

Tribunal closed his eyes briefly and sighed; bringing a smirk to Q's face. With the air of an nigh-omnipotent being who was loosing the struggle to maintain his composure, Tribunal continued. "Three hours ago a Borg vessel assimilated a starship in the molecular cloud of a protostar." Q rolled his eyes ostentatiously, but before he could interrupt, Tribunal went on, "The vessel had been displaced as the result of some great cataclysm in another quantum reality-a _segregated_ reality." Q supressed the insult that he had been forming and, for the very first time, found himself interested in what Tribunal was saying.

"The ship belonged to a race known as the Daleks. When the Borg attacked, they were attempting to use the protostar to build a gateway back to their own universe. Using data in the Dalek ship's databanks, the Borg were able to complete the gateway, and at this very moment a cube is exploring the local galaxy of that universe."

"Why is this our problem?" Q asked, his the caustic defiance in his voice giving way to fascination.

"Because," said the other Q gravely, "If the Borg gain access to the knowledge and technology of that universe, there is no force in _any_ reality that will ever be able to stop them."

Considering this, Q allowed a sly grin to form on his face, "And I thought this would be a bad day."

"Q, the Continuum is giving you all of its intelligence about that universe, and special dispensation to follow the Borg there." Tribunal paused to snap his fingers, and give Q both. "You are to prevent the cube from bringing that knowledge back to the Collective." Fully meeting Q's eyes for the first time, he continued, "Failing that, you are to collapse that universe entirely."

"This is going to be fun," mused Q. The dangerous edge that had crept into his voice wasn't lost on Tribunal.

"No games, Q! Trillions of sentient beings are depending on you taking this seriously!"

With an enigmatic grin befitting an ageless being of nearly limitless power, Q replied, "I am a faithful agent of the Continuum." Before Tribunal could react, Q twirled his hand in the air with a flourish and disappeared in a flash.

"Why must they always send him?" Tribunal asked the empty courtroom.


	3. A New World

Borg vessels were occasionally required to operate outside of the influence of the collective consciousness. There were times when extreme distance, spacial phenomena, or other circumstances made it impractical to maintain an uplink to the hive mind. Under such circumstances, a Borg vessel relies on the collective consciousness of its own drones to operate-that smaller collective following a set of primary directives that would keep that vessel's activities in-line with the Collective's objectives. This was undesirable-the Borg's greatest advantage was the hive mind, which consisted of trillions of individual minds each adding to the strength of the whole-but, occasionally, it was unavoidable.

Cube 942 was operating under those conditions now. Normally, the tens of thousands of drones attached to a cube would be more than sufficient to operate away from the Collective, but Cube 942 had suffered heavily. Assimilating the Dalek saucer had come at a cost. Despite being damaged itself, the Dalek ship had been able to inflict heavy punishment on the cube before it could adapt. When the Borg boarded the Dalek saucer, nine hundred additional drones had been killed before they were able to neutralize the Daleks. This left the the Borg ship's resources critically sapped.

Their analysis had been correct: the Dalek ship _was_ relevant technology. Integrating Dalek knowledge into the Collective had been worth far more than the losses Cube 942 had sustained. As for the Daleks themselves, assimilating a species possessing such a high order of intelligence would be invaluable...just as soon the Borg had figured out exactly how to do that.

The Dalek crew-or at least the forty-three crew members that the Borg had been able to capture alive-were posing quite a problem. It was always a challenge to integrate non-humanoid lifeforms into the Borg Collective, but very few are as resistant to assimilation as the Daleks were proving to be. Six individual Daleks had so far been dissected for study, but despite intensive analysis, the Borg had not yet been able to develop secure methods to integrate them into the hive mind.

The cube's waining resources, however, were the more immediate the priority, and the Borg were focusing on scanning for exploitable materials. The most promising results were tachyons that had been detected emanating in regular patterns from a nearby star system. This likely indicated the presence of advanced technology and intelligent lifeforms. Once they had reestablished the cube's warp drive, the Borg would proceed to that system and investigate.

* * *

><p>"The entire species runs a resort?" Rose Tyler asked, amazed that a society could operate like that.<p>

"They had a bit of a war," said The Doctor, darting around the TARDIS's controls fiddling with knobs and buttons, coxing his beloved ship to its destination-a process that at one point involved a large mallet. "The next day, they dusted themselves off and decided to devote themselves to something more life-affirming."

Even though Rose had only known this new version of The Doctor for a short while, she found that she enjoyed her adventures with him just as much as she had before. He was still just as brilliant as he had been, and still just as warm. And despite his new personality, he still had the same odd, quirky way of sharing his vast knowledge and wisdom with his companion-now he just talked more while he did it.

"Well, _we _decided." he said, circling the controls again; his manipulations of the TARDIS, as always, seeming alternately controlled and chaotic. "Well," he corrected, "_I _decided and _they_ agreed...though I suppose the nuclear holocaust deserves _some_ credit."

"Did you say 'the next day'?" Rose asked, pleasantly bemused.

The Doctor leaned around the central podium to meet Rose's eyes. She watched as he arched his remarkably expressive eyebrows, "Whole war only lasted twenty minutes."

The Doctor focused once more on his instruments, and Rose smiled to herself. She marveled to see the Doctor working, wearing a slight smile on his face. He was man who repeatedly faced down unspeakable horror; a man who was deeply injured by the things he has seen and the things he has done. When he was working with the TARDIS, however, he was perfectly content-almost completely at peace.

Before she could contemplate the Doctor any further, she was thrown from her seat by a great jolt. The TARDIS made a clumsy lurch and she found herself tumbling across its deck. There was a low, metallic groan and Rose pushed herself up off the floor, realizing that her forehead was bleeding slightly as she did so.

From across the room, the Doctor called out to her. He had been shaken too, but his reflexes were keen enough to keep him on his feet.

"I'm fine," Rose answered.

The Doctor was already at the controls, his brow furrowed and his mouth slightly open in astonishment. "What?" he asked, speaking to himself. He whirled around, his long strides taking him very quickly to the door. "What?" he repeated, staring into the space outside the door. Rose looked too.

There was some kind of barrier surrounding the TARDIS. It looked like a mesh of multi-colored, slightly pulsating energy. Before she could ask the Doctor about it, they heard a noise behind them. It sounded as though someone had tapped a small bell with a metal striker, and they both turned around. There was a figure standing there, dressed in resplendent golden robes and an elaborate headdress made from the same metallic golden material. Beside her, she heard the Doctor repeat himself, "What."

Hearing his tone, she glanced at the Doctor, and found him staring very intently at the intruder. His expression inscrutable, but unmistakably dark. She had no way of knowing that the intruder was dressed in as a Time Lord.


	4. Alarm

Seconds passed. Rose's gaze shifted uncomfortably between the Doctor and the intruder. She could only once remember the TARDIS being as silent is it was now—and just as the eery calm had done then, it now filled her with a deep, profound sense of unease.

She had long ago realized that the Doctor's beloved ship was alive; and more than that, somehow, the it was aware of itself. The Doctor's control over the unfathomable device was, in the best of times, marginal. He could tell it where and when he wanted it to take them, but nearly as often as the TARDIS obeyed its doting pilot, it would ignore him. Rose had learned to trust this insane blue box. She had-her mind recoiled at the word-faith that even when it didn't take them where they wanted to go, it would always take them where they needed to be.

Now, though, the TARDIS felt. . .not dead, exactly, but maybe asleep? _No_, Rose thought, _not asleep, frozen._ The realization made her shudder. She could feel it, too. It was like a part of her mind had become as cold and empty as the endless void through the open door behind her.

Remembering the stinging on her forehead, Rose watched, as though it were occurring in slow-motion, a glistening drop of blood fall from somewhere below her scalp and onto the floor beneath her. Her peripheral vision told her that the Doctor had watched it fall as well.

Immediately, the Doctor's manner changed from detached and calculating, to the more familiar jovial and hyperactive. "Well," he said, beaming, "what are you, then?"

The suddenness of the Doctor's change in tone surprised his companion. For a fleeting moment, Rose thought she saw the intruder's face betray surprise too. Later, whenever her mind wandered back to this event, she would decide that she must have imagined the look; because now the intruder seemed as dispassionate as a block of ice.

"Y—" the stranger started, only to be cut off by the Doctor.

"You've got a couple of extra dimensions, haven't you? No, you couldn't be a Time Lord." The Doctor's tone was effervescent, but his gaze was appraising as he strode toward his newest passenger. "But nothing short of a Time Lord could have pulled a TARDIS out of the vortex without, well, killing us all. And he'd have to be a cleaver one, too." The Doctor was now walking in circles around the intruder, his eyes sweeping over the man's body from head to toe; still appraising.

"And that energy field, _that_ is impressive!" The Doctor broke orbit to address the stranger directly, gesturing out the still-open TARDIS door, his face alight with elated fascination. Leaning, Rose thought, his face entirely too close to the other man, the Doctor continued, "It's just brilliant, isn't it? Bloody useless, clearly for show, but how often do you get to see something so―" the Doctor paused as though he were looking for the right word, "dramatic?"

The intruder walked through the Doctor. Literally, _through_, as though one of the two men were made of smoke. Heavy footfalls on the metallic grate deck below, however, told Rose and the Doctor that the man was nevertheless made of solid matter.

After a few paces, the intruder came to a halt, and turned slowly on the spot to take in the whole control room.

"Smaller than I expected," he said, flatly, facing the Doctor again.

_Good lord,_ Rose thought, _it never changes._ "Boys and their toys," she said with an exasperated sigh.

The stranger looked at Rose, seeming to notice her for the first time. "Doctor," he said, brightly, "You have a pet! Oh, and look, she hurt herself."

"Don't!" The Doctor's voice was firm. He started to move; trying to place himself protectively between this impostor Time Lord and Rose, but the stranger was already there. Clucking his tongue like a chiding mother, the man wiped his hand across Rose's forehead, erasing all traces of the wound.

"Who are you?" Rose asked, pressing her fingers to her scalp. The gash was gone-she couldn't even feel a scar.

"Q," he said simply.

"Just. . .Q?" The doctor asked, seeming slightly more wary than he had moments before.

"Oh, let's leave it at Q. I wouldn't want to sully this auspicious occasion with an arrogant, ill-defined title, _Doctor_."

At that moment, Rose realized that neither she nor the Doctor had actually introduced themselves to this being. It was with a growing sense of dread that she asked, "What _occasion_?"

"Why Doomsday, of course!" Q ejaculated cheerfully. "You should be very impressed," he said, beaming. "A lot of people _talk_ about omnicide, but I've never seen anybody go through with it before!"

Rose expected the Doctor to protest, but before he got the chance to say anything at all, a bell sounded from somewhere in deep within the TARDIS. Rose drew in a breath, ready to rush to her friend's defense, but the look on his have stopped her cold. She had never heard the cloister bell before.

* * *

><p><em>Author's Note: Thank you, for being so patient with me. Unfortunately, my crippling shiftlessness has kept me from updating as quickly as I would like-also, I had to complete certain. . .programs to <em>reenter society (_Don't _ever _let anybody convince you that smuggling opium is a quick and easy way to make money. Turkish prison SUCKS!)__. I do have a plan for this story, and fully intend to finish it, even if that takes me a little longer than it should take for any functional human being. Stay with me, this will be the last of the super-short chapters, because shit is about to go down._


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